Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct: Calvin's Storyby Chris Thompson, Special to CorpWatchCalvin Bryant was crippled in a Imperial Sugar plant explosion in Savannah, Georgia, that also killed 14 of his co-workers. In a new CorpWatch investigation into federal contractors who win millions in government business despite violating workers rights, Chris Thompson tells his story.

Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct: Rodney's Storyby Chris Thompson, Special to CorpWatchRodney Bridgett was killed when a piece of Tyson Foods’ heavy equipment crushed him at the company's beef processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa. In a new CorpWatch investigation into federal contractors who win millions in government business despite violating workers rights, Chris Thompson tells his story.

U.S.: Will Wall Street Ever Face Justice?by Phil Angelides, New York TimesMarch 1st, 2012Four years after the disintegration of the financial system, 24 million people jobless or underemployed. Yet claims of financial fraud against companies like Citigroup and Bank of America have been settled for pennies on the dollar, with no admission of wrongdoing. Executives who ran companies that made, packaged and sold trillions of dollars in toxic mortgages and mortgage-backed securities remain largely unscathed.

US: Oil Hits Home, Spreading Arc of Frustrationby Campbell Robertson, Clifford Krauss and John M. Broder, New York Times May 24th, 2010More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. The disaster underscores the enduring laxity of federal regulation of offshore operations and has shown the government to be almost wholly at the mercy of BP and of Transocean, the company leasing the rig.

WORLD: Disaster Plans Lacking at Deep Rigsby Ben Casselman and Guy Chazen, Wall Street Journal May 17th, 2010Dealing with a deep-sea spill is a a problem that spans the industry, whose major players include Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell and Petróleo Brasileiro SA. Without adequately planning for trouble, the oil business has focused on developing experimental equipment and techniques to drill in ever deeper waters, according to a Wall Street Journal examination.

US: U.S. Said to Allow Drilling Without Needed Permitsby Ian Urbina, New York Times May 13th, 2010The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.

UK/CANADA: Tar sands crude is reaching British petrol stations, Greenpeace saysby Terry Macalister, The Guardian (UK)May 9th, 2010While City investors have begun to question the role of companies such as BP and Shell in the tar sands business, a new report by Greenpeace claims British motorists are unwitting users of diesel and petrol derived from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada. The carbon-heavy production methods involved make tar sands extraction particularly damaging to the environment.

US: FBI Probes Explosion in West Virginia Mineby Kris Maher and Siobhan Hughes, Wall Street Journal April 30th, 2010The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal probe of the deadly explosion at a Massey Energy Co. mine in West Virginia in early April that killed 29 miners, according to people familiar with the matter. In a statement on Friday Massey Energy said, "Massey has no knowledge of criminal wrongdoing."

US: BP Is Criticized Over Oil Spill, but U.S. Missed Chances to Actby Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton, New York TimesApril 30th, 2010The Obama administration began Friday to publicly chastise BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials initially seemed to underestimate the threat of a leak, just as BP did last year when it told the government such an event was highly unlikely.

US: Oil Spill’s Blow to BP’s Image May Eclipse Costsby Clifford Krauss , New York TimesApril 29th, 2010BP says that the offshore drilling accident that is spewing thousands of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico could cost the company several hundred million dollars. Nobody really knows whether the oil giant is being too conservative about the cost for the April 20 accident, which some experts say could end up as the biggest oil spill in history.

CANADA: Munk takes on mine protesters, defends capitalismby John Spears, The StarApril 28th, 2010Mark Ekepa journeyed from Papua New Guinea to tell the shareholders of Barrick Gold Corp. how police had burned down his house near the Barrick’s Porgera mine. Idolia Bornones travelled from Chile to say that Barrick operations are damaging local glaciers and rivers. But Barrick chairman Peter Munk was unrepentant as he faced the company’s annual meeting.

US: Financial Debate Renews Scrutiny on Banks’ Sizeby Sewall Chan, New York TimesApril 20th, 2010One question has vexed the Obama administration and Congress since the start of the financial crisis: how to prevent big bank bailouts. In the last year and a half, the largest financial institutions have only grown bigger, mainly as a result of government-brokered mergers. They now enjoy borrowing at significantly lower rates than their smaller competitors, a result of the bond markets’ implicit assumption that the giant banks are “too big to fail.”

US: Deaths at West Virginia Mine Raise Issues About Safetyby Ian Urbina and Michael Cooper, New York Times April 6th, 2010Rescue workers began the precarious task Tuesday of removing explosive methane gas from the coal mine where at least 25 miners died the day before. The mine owner’s -- Massey Energy Company -- dismal safety record, along with several recent evacuations of the mine, left federal officials and miners suggesting that Monday’s explosion might have been preventable.

AFGHANISTAN/US: Outsourcing intelligenceby David Ignatius, Washington Post March 17th, 2010The headline read like something you might see in the conspiracy-minded Pakistani press: "Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants." But the story appeared in Monday's New York Times, and it highlighted some big problems that have developed in the murky area between military and intelligence activities.

AFGHANISTAN/US: Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militantsby DEXTER FILKINS and MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times March 15th, 2010Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States. The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives.

US: Idea of company-as-person originated in late 19th centuryby Martha C. White, Washington Post January 31st, 2010The Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision in Citizens United v FEC rolled back long-standing restrictions on corporate campaign finance donations. At the crux of the decision was a determination that corporations have a right to free speech. The court ruled that limiting the amount that companies can spend promoting their favored candidates is tantamount to denying First Amendment rights.

US: Banks Set for Record Payby STEPHEN GROCER, Wall Street Journal January 14th, 2010Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street's pay culture.

EUROPE: Europe’s Vast Farm Subsidies Face Challengesby STEPHEN CASTLE and DOREEN CARVAJAL, New York Times December 29th, 2009The last time the European Union decided the future of its 50 billion euro agricultural aid program, in 2005, the deal was cut behind closed doors in a luxury suite at the five-star Conrad Brussels hotel. Now, 2013 is closer at hand and a new round of maneuvering has begun to reshape the richest system of agricultural handouts in the world.

US: Monsanto's dominance draws antitrust inquiryby Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post November 29th, 2009For plants designed in a lab a little more than a decade ago, they've come a long way: Today, the vast majority of the nation's two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. Now Monsanto -- like IBM and Google -- has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators.

US: Ex-UBS Banker Seeks Billions for Blowing Whistleby Lynnley Browning, New York Times November 26th, 2009Bradley C. Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in prison for helping rich Americans dodge their taxes, his sentence reduced in turn for informing on Swiss banking giant UBS. Now, with the help of the National Whistleblower Center, he and his lawyers hope to use a new federal whistle-blower law to claim a multibillion-dollar reward from the American government.

UK: Friends of the Earth attacks carbon tradingby Ashley Seager, The Guardian (UK)November 5th, 2009The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn. In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date "cap and trade" carbon markets have done little to reduce emissions but have been plagued by inefficiency and corruption.

IVORY COAST: Trafigura offers deal to 31,000 Africans over dumped wasteby Frances Gibb, The Times (London)October 17th, 2009British oil trader Trafigura has offered to settle a court case brought by 31,000 Africans who say that they were injured in the largest personal injuries class action mounted in an English court. The action resulted from the dumping of 400 tonnes of waste in the Ivory Coast by an oil tanker, the Probo Koala, in 2006 — one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history.

US: E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspectionby Michael Moss, New York TimesOctober 3rd, 2009Tracing the chain of production of an E. Coli-contaminated hamburger made by Cargill, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe.

US: The Rights of Corporations (Op-Ed)New York Times September 22nd, 2009The question at the heart of one of the biggest Supreme Court cases this year is simple: What constitutional rights should corporations have? The legal doctrine underlying this debate is known as “corporate personhood.”

US: Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Sufferingby Charles Duhigg, New York TimesSeptember 12th, 2009Violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found. Polluters include small companies, like gas stations, dry cleaners, and shopping malls. They also include large operations, like chemical factories, power plants, sewage treatment centers and one of the biggest zinc smelters, the Horsehead Corporation of Pennsylvania.

AFGHANISTAN: Wackenhut aids inquiry into its Afghanistan contractorCNN.comSeptember 3rd, 2009This week the Project on Government Oversight released damning allegations of deviant hazing at a camp for security guards in Afghanistan. Sparking questions from the State Department, POGO warned the problems are "posing a significant threat to the security of the embassy and its personnel."

US: So You Squandered Billions --- Take Another Whack At Itby Steven Perlstein, Washington PostSeptember 2nd, 2009During the heyday of the credit bubble, they were the financiers who earned huge bonuses for creating, trading and investing other people's money in those complex securities that resulted in trillions of dollars in losses and brought global financial markets to their knees. Now they're out there again hustling for investors and hoping to make another score buying and trading the same securities.

US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contractby V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post August 12th, 2009A Defense Department auditor, appearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, testified Tuesday that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait.

US: House votes to rein in ‘excessive pay’ for company execsby Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science MonitorJuly 31st, 2009On Friday the U.S. House of Representativs passed a high-visibility bill to give shareholders and federal regulators a stronger hand in curbing excessive or risky executive compensation. Industry groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed the bill as an overreach into private business decisions.

US: Big Banks Paid Billions in Bonuses Amid Wall St. Crisisby Louise Story and Eric Dash, New York Times July 30th, 2009Nine of the financial firms that were recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the New York attorney general. The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid.

US: Cuomo Says Schwab Faces Fraud Suitby Liz Rappaport, Wall Street Journal July 20th, 2009New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has warned Charles Schwab & Co. that his office plans to sue the firm for civil fraud over its marketing and sales of auction-rate securities to clients. Emails and testimony cited in the letter show Schwab's brokers had little idea of what they were selling and later failed to tell clients that the market was collapsing.

US: Industry Takes Aim at Plan to Create Financial Protection Agencyby Brady Dennis, Washington Post July 7th, 2009Business and trade-group lobbyists are beating a path for the first major battle over the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Recent discussions have involved the American Bankers Association, National Auto Dealers Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mortgage Bankers Association and other lobbyists.

US: DOJ Opens Review of Telecom Industryby Amol Sharma, Wall Street JournalJuly 6th, 2009The Department of Justice has begun an initial review to determine whether large U.S. telecom companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have abused the market power they've amassed in recent years. The DOJ's antitrust chief has said she wants to reassert the government's role in policing monopolistic and anti-competitive practices by powerful companies.

US: Madoff Is Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Schemeby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 29th, 2009A criminal saga that began in December with a string of superlatives — the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history — ended the same way on Monday as Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum for his crimes.

US: IRS Steps Up Scrutiny of Offshore Funds by Jenny Strasburg and Jesse Drucker, Wall Street JournalJune 26th, 2009The Internal Revenue Service is demanding that hedge-fund and private-equity investors disclose hundreds of billions of dollars they have invested offshore, boosting scrutiny of accounts popular for tax advantages.

AFRICA: Blood diamond scheme 'is failing'BBC NewsJune 24th, 2009Officials are meeting to review the Kimberley Process, amid criticism that the scheme, set up to certify the origin of diamonds to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they are not financing war and human rights abuses, is failing. The Kimberley Process emerged from global outrage over conflicts in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, largely funded by the plundering of diamond resources.

US: Madoff Suits Add Details About Fraudby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 22nd, 2009Three lawsuits filed on Monday provided new details about what regulators say went on inside Bernard L. Madoff’s long-running Ponzi scheme, including information about who might have helped perpetuate the fraud for so long.

US: Hedge Funds Boost Profile in Lobbyingby Susan Pulliam and Tom McGinty, Wall Street Journal June 22nd, 2009Many hedge funds were relieved when the Obama administration's financial-overhaul plan included no big surprises to the lucrative, secretive industry. In 2008, major hedge funds and their trade groups spent $6.1 million lobbying Washington, up from $4.2 million in 2007 and nearly seven times the $897,000 average from 2003 to 2006.

AFRICA: Battle to Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbsby Celia W. Dugger, New York Times June 9th, 2009The fight against corruption in Africa is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. The search is on for more effective ways to tackle corruption, including intensified legal efforts to prosecute multinational corporations that pay the bribes and reclaim loot that African political elites have stashed abroad.

US: 'Roadless' Forest Areas Now Under Vilsackby David A. Fahrenthold, Washington PostMay 29th, 2009U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a temporary order yesterday governing development in "roadless" areas of national forests, requiring all new projects to be approved by him personally. A USDA official said it is unclear whether projects with a strictly commercial aim, such as logging or mining, will be allowed.

US: U.S. Cracks Down on Corporate Bribesby DIONNE SEARCEY, Wall Street Journal May 26th, 2009The Justice Department is increasing its prosecutions of alleged acts of foreign bribery by U.S. corporations, forcing them to take costly steps to defend against scrutiny. The crackdown under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA -- a post-Watergate law largely dormant for decades -- now extends across five continents and penetrates entire industries.

US: Activist Financier 'Terrorizes' Bankers in Foreclosure Fightby James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal May 20th, 2009A nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, or NACA, has emerged as one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy. Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, NACA's Bruce Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry and the effort to curb foreclosures.

ECUADOR: In Ecuador, Resentment of an Oil Company Oozesby SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS, New York Times May 14th, 2009Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells in Ecuador's northeastern jungle. Texaco’s roughnecks are long gone, but black gunk from the pits seeps to the topsoil here and in dozens of other spots. These days the only Chevron employees who visit the former oil fields do so escorted by bodyguards toting guns. They represent one side in a bitter fight that is developing into the world’s largest environmental lawsuit, with $27 billion in potential damages.

US: Trustee Sues Madoff Hedge Fund Investorby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times May 7th, 2009The trustee gathering assets for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud has sued a prominent New York City hedge fund investor, J. Ezra Merkin, to recover almost $500 million withdrawn from Madoff accounts in the last six years.

US: Debt Settlers Offer Promises but Little Helpby David Streitfeld, New York TimesApril 19th, 2009With the economy on the ropes, hundreds of thousands of consumers are turning to “debt settlement” companies like Credit Solutions to escape a crushing pile of bills. State attorneys general are being flooded with complaints about settlement companies and other forms of debt relief.

US: Credit Card Processor Asked for Offshore Databy Lynnley Browning, New York Times April 15th, 2009The U.S. government is widening its investigation of offshore tax evasion to include services sold by the First Data Corporation, a large processor of credit card transactions. The I.R.S. alleged that First Data actively marketed and sold offshore services to American merchants, who in turn used the service to help their clients hide taxable income.

US: N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide Inquiryby Danny Hakim, New York TimesApril 13th, 2009New York State prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest and most politically connected private equity firms, made millions of dollars in improper payments to intermediaries in exchange for investments from New York’s state pension fund.

IRAQ: Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobsby Rod Nordland, New York Times April 3rd, 2009Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq, but by next month many of its private security guards will be back on the job here. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s new contract.

CHINA: Banks Face Big Losses From Bets on Chinese Realtyby David Barboza , New York Times April 3rd, 2009Evergrande Real Estate Group, now mired in debt, has become a symbol of China’s go-go era of investing, when international bankers, private equity deal makers and hedge fund managers from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and others rushed here hoping to cash in on the world’s biggest building boom.

UK: Shareholders vote against RBS payBBC OnlineApril 3rd, 2009More than 90% of Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders voted against the bank's pay and pensions policy at its annual general meeting in Edinburgh. RBS does not have to make any changes as a result, saying it was a "substantive" protest at Sir Fred Goodwin's Ł703,000 a year pension. Sir Philip blamed RBS's difficulties on its acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.

US: Banks Get New Leeway in Valuing Their Assets by Floyd Norris, New York Times April 2nd, 2009A once-obscure accounting rule was changed Thursday to give banks more discretion in reporting the value of mortgage securities. Apparently under political pressure, the five-member Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a controversial change that makes it possible for banks to keep some declines in asset values off their income statements.

US/CANADA: Alaskan lake’s fate could echo across continentby Todd Wilkinson, Christian Science MonitorMarch 24th, 2009A landmark legal case now before the US Supreme Court holds huge implications for lakes across the continent. Nearly four decades the Clean Water Act was passed to protect waterways from industrial pollution, a proposal by Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. to dispose of tons of effluent in Alaska's Lower Slate Lake has sparked an international debate.

US: Bonus Money at Troubled A.I.G. Draws Heavy Criticismby EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER, New York Times March 15th, 2009American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is to pay executives in the business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year $165 million in bonuses. The bonuses will go forward because lawyers say the firm is contractually obligated to pay them.

US: They Tried to Outsmart Wall Streetby Dennis Overbye, New York Times March 9th, 2009Physicists and other scientists have flooded Wall Street in recent years, known as “quants” because they do quantitative finance. They arrived on Wall Street in the midst of a financial revolution. Galloping inflation had made finances more complicated and risky, and it required sophisticated mathematical expertise to parse even simple investments like bonds.

US: Food Problems Elude Private Inspectorsby Michael Moss and Andrew Martin, New York Times March 5th, 2009When food industry giants like Kellogg want to ensure that American consumers are being protected from contaminated products, they rely on private inspectors. With government inspectors overwhelmed by the task of guarding the nation’s food supply, the job of monitoring food plants has in large part fallen to an army of private auditors, and problems are rife.

INDIA: Pricewaterhouse Revamps Indian Unitby Heather Timmons, New York Times March 5th, 2009The auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers is overhauling its operations in India two months after starting an investigation into fraud at Satyam Computer Services, a software and outsourcing firm whose chairman said in January that he had falsely claimed assets of $1 billion in cash and overstated operating margins.

IRELAND: U2 rattled by claims of tax dodgingby Michael Seaver, Christian Science MonitorMarch 3rd, 2009The band that loves to rail against global corporate malfeasance is being criticized at home over allegations of tax dodging. The controversy stems from 2006, when the band moved its publishing company to the Netherlands to avoid a potential multi-million-euro tax bill after the Irish government capped artists' tax-free earnings at €250,000 ($315,000).

ECUADOR/CANADA: Canadian Mining Firm Financed Violence in Ecuador: Lawsuitby Jennifer Moore, Tyee OnlineMarch 3rd, 2009Three villagers from the valley of Intag in northwestern Ecuador are suing Copper Mesa Mining Corporation and the Toronto Stock Exchange. They allege not enough has been done to reduce the risk of harm being faced by farmers and community leaders who have faced violent threats and attacks for opposition to a large open-pit copper mine in their pristine cloud forests.

US: Ex-Leaders at Countrywide Start Firm to Buy Bad Loansby Eric Lipton, New York Times March 3rd, 2009Countrywide Financial made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has the economy staggering. So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess, buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, at newly-formed PennyMac.

EUROPE: Europe to Allow Two Bans on Genetically Altered Cropsby James Kanter, New York Times March 2nd, 2009European Union governments delivered a blow Monday to the biotechnology industry, allowing Austria and Hungary to maintain national bans on growing genetically modified crops from Monsanto. The market for genetically engineered crops is worth several billion dollars worldwide.

CHINA: Morgan Stanley’s Chinese Land Scandalby David Barboza , New York TimesMarch 1st, 2009In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Morgan Stanley said it had fired an executive in its China real estate division after uncovering evidence that he might have violated the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American business people from bribing foreign officials.

SWITZERLAND: UBS Names Grübel as New CEOby Carrick Mollenkamp, Wall Street Journal February 26th, 2009UBS AG, the Swiss bank battered by massive write-downs and its role in a U.S. tax-evasion scheme, announced the surprise departure of chief executive Marcel Rohner. Mr. Rohner's sudden departure comes after UBS agreed earlier this month to a $780 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department of a criminal inquiry into the bank's role in the tax evasion.

MEXICO: U.S. Is Arms Bazaar for Mexican Cartels by James C. McKinley, Jr., New York Times February 25th, 2009Phoenix-based gun dealer George Iknadosian of X-Calibur Guns will go on trial on charges he sold hundreds of weapons, mostly AK-47 rifles, to smugglers, knowing they would go to a drug cartel in the western state of Sinaloa. The guns helped fuel the gang warfare in which more than 6,000 Mexicans died last year.

US: Tobacco Trial Opens in Florida, First of Many Suitsby Associated Press, Wall Street Journal February 3rd, 2009The first of about 8,000 lawsuits blaming the health problems and deaths of Florida smokers on tobacco companies went to trial Tuesday. The key to the case is proving whether now-deceased Stuart Hess was addicted to cigarettes made by Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group.

US: Bank of America Board Under Gun From Criticsby Louise Story and Julie Creswell, New York Times January 27th, 2009As Bank of America's board meets next week, shareholders have turned up the pressure on CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. Their scrutiny has also turned an unusual spotlight on the oversight role played by the bank's board members.

US: Troubled Times Bring Mini-Madoffs to Lightby Leslie Wayne, New York Times January 27th, 2009In the wake of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal, the SEC has brought cases involving losses of over $200 million since the beginning of October last year, including one against the disgraced Democratic donor Norman Hsu and North Carolina-based Biltmore Financial.

US: New Rules on Doctors and Medical Firms Amid Ethics Concernsby Barry Meier, New York Times January 24th, 2009The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, reintroduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, would require device and drug makers to report all financial links with doctors on a federal Web site. The medical field has been troubled by federal investigations over the issue of frequently undisclosed financial ties between companies and physicians.

US: Rubin Leaving Citigroup; Smith Barney for Saleby Eric Dash and Louise Story, New York Times January 9th, 2009Robert Rubin will resign from the beleaguered Citigroup. As Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, Mr. Rubin helped loosen Depression-era banking regulations that made Citigroup's creation possible. He also helped beat back tighter oversight of exotic financial products during that time.

US: Madoff Case Faces Crucial Disclosure Deadlineby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times December 30th, 2008Judge Louis L. Stanton of United States District Court has established Wednesday as the deadline for Bernard L. Madoff, who is accused of operating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, to provide federal securities regulators with a full accounting of his and his New York firm’s assets — from real estate to art works to bank accounts.

US: Bank of New York Mellon Will Oversee Bailout Fundby Eric Dash, New York TimesOctober 15th, 2008The Bank of New York Mellon was named the master custodian firm overseeing the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout fund. It will hold and track the distressed assets that the government will buy as well as run and report on the auctions used to buy the assets. Government officials called it the “prime contractor of the purchase program.”

US: U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banksby Edmund L. Andrews and Mark Landler, New York Times October 8th, 2008In fresh efforts to stem persisting turmoil in the credit markets, the US Treasury Department is considering partial nationalization of numerous U.S. banks. Insurance giant A.I.G. will also receive a further injection of $37.8 billion.

US: Mosaic threatens $618 million lawsuitby Frank Gluck, Herald TribuneSeptember 30th, 2008Florida mining giant Mosaic Fertilizer said Monday it will file a $618 million lawsuit against Manatee County unless commissioners reverse a Sept. 16 vote that denied permission for Mosaic to mine phosphate on a property in Duette.

US: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Takeovers Cost U.S. Banks Billionsby John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal September 23rd, 2008About a quarter of the nation's banks lost a combined $10 to $15 billion in the wake of the federal government's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The losses are galling to small bankers because they took pains to avoid the exotic loans and loose underwriting standards that have hobbled Wall Street titans and some huge banks.

US: Federal Oil Officials Accused
In Sex and Drugs Scandal
by STEPHEN POWER, Wall Street JournalSeptember 11th, 2008Employees of the federal agency that last year collected more than $11 billion in royalties from oil and gas companies broke government rules and created a "culture of ethical failure" by allegedly accepting gifts from and having sex with industry representatives, the Interior Department's top watchdog said Wednesday.

US: For Widely Used Drug, Question of Usefulness Is Still Lingering
by ALEX BERENSON, The New York TimesSeptember 1st, 2008About the only point on which both sides agree is that no one can judge ezetimibe’s safety and benefits for certain without more data, ideally from a clinical trial covering more than 10,000 patients and lasting several years, long enough to show that the drug actually helps patients live longer or avoid heart attacks.

US: Files Show Governor Intervened With Courtby Ian Urbina, New York Times August 13th, 2008West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III filed a friend-of-the-court brief in June, arguing the State Supreme Court should review a $382 million judgment against DuPont. The case involves thousands of residents in the area of a DuPont-operated zinc-smelting plant, and the largest civil penalty ever levied against the company, for the dumping of toxic arsenic, cadmium and lead at the plant.

UK-Zimbabwe: BAE linked to Zimbabwean arms dealerby Christopher Thompson and Michael Peel , Financial Times/UKJuly 31st, 2008According to documents seen by the Financial Times, BAE Systems has been linked to Zimbabwean arms trader John Bredenkamp. BAE reportedly paid at least Ł20m to Bredenkamp via offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands between 2003 and 2005. The payments raise fresh questions about bribery in BAE's dealings.

US: FCC to Rule Comcast
Can't Block Web Videos
by AMY SCHATZ, Wall Street Journal July 28th, 2008The Federal Communications Commission will rule that the cable giant violated federal policy by deliberately preventing some customers from sharing videos online via file-sharing services like BitTorrent, agency officials said. The company has acknowledged it slowed some traffic, but said it was necessary to prevent a few heavy users from overburdening its network.

US: Pentagon Auditors Pressured To Favor Contractors, GAO Saysby Dana Hedgpeth, The Washington PostJuly 24th, 2008Auditors at a Pentagon oversight agency were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on major defense contractors to make them look more favorable instead of exposing wrongdoing and charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

INDIA: Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopalby Somini Sengupta, New York Times July 7th, 2008Residents of Bhopal, India continue to suffer from Union Carbide's toxic legacy, this time in the form of toxic waste that still languishes inside a shoddy warehouse on the old factory grounds. Ailments such as cleft palates and mental retardation are appearing in numbers of Bhopali children, raising questions about contaminated soil and groundwater, clean-up, and liability.

SWITZERLAND: Tax scandal leaves Swiss giant reelingby Nick Mathiason, The Guardian (UK)June 29th, 2008Sending shockwaves through the Swiss financial industry, banking giant UBS is facing accusations from a former senior banker in US courts of massive fraud and corruption. UBS is alleged to have engaged in routine activities aimed at helping its high net worth clients evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, among other matters.

US: Arms Dealer Had Troubled History
by ERIC SCHMITT, The New York TimesJune 25th, 2008When the Army last year awarded a contract worth up to nearly $300 million to a tiny Miami Beach munitions dealer to supply ammunition to Afghanistan’s army and police forces, it was in spite of a very checkered past.

US: House Passes Bill on Wiretap Powers
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and DAVID STOUT, The New York TimesJune 21st, 2008The House on Friday overwhelmingly approved a bill overhauling the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and conferring what amounts to legal immunity to the telephone companies that took part in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

US: Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stirby James Risen, New York TimesJune 17th, 2008Charles M. Smith, the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war, says he was ousted for refusing to approve payment for more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR. The Pentagon has recently awarded KBR part of a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq.

EUROPE: Chemical Law Has Global Impactby Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post June 12th, 2008Europe this month rolled out new restrictions on makers of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. The changes follow eight years of vigorous opposition from the U.S. chemical industry giants like DuPont, and the Bush administration.

TOBACCO: Profits in Hand, Wealthy Family Cuts Tobacco Tie
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York TimesJune 11th, 2008Now, the next generation of Tisches has removed tobacco from the portfolio of the conglomerate they lead, the Loews Corporation, spinning off its tobacco unit, Lorillard, as a stand-alone business, with the Newport brand representing more than 90 percent of the new company’s revenue. The new stock began trading Tuesday, and analysts have said the new company might be a takeover target.

US: From a Whistle-Blower to a Targetby TIM ARANGO, The New York TimesJune 9th, 2008Mr. Ripp's journey from whistle-blower to defendant is another example of the long shadow cast by the AOL-Time Warner merger, now widely regarded as one of the most disastrous corporate marriages in history. It is also a cautionary tale for corporate executives who may illuminate fraudulent conduct to one government agency but then find themselves a target of another.

US: Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay
by GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY, The New York TimesJune 8th, 2008A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators.

US: Opposition to Menthol Cigarettes Grows
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York TimesJune 5th, 2008The seven, from Democratic and Republican administrations, faxed a letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives demanding that menthol-flavored cigarettes be banned just like various other cigarette flavorings the legislation would outlaw.

US: 30 Former Officials Became Corporate Monitors
by ERIC LICHTBLAU and KITTY BENNETT, The New York TimesMay 23rd, 2008The Justice Department has appointed at least 30 former prosecutors and other government officials as well-paid corporate monitors in arrangements that allow companies to avoid criminal prosecution, according to government data released Thursday by Congress.

US: Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York TimesMay 13th, 2008Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time.

EUROPE: Stealth Lobbyists Creep Inby David Cronin, IPSMay 9th, 2008The often cosy relationship between corporate lobbyists and the Brussels bureaucracy was illustrated in the past few weeks as several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) prepared to visit Peru.

US: Fannie Mae Ex-Officials Settle
by JAMES R. HAGERTY, Wall Street JournalApril 19th, 2008The settlement, announced Friday, brings the government far less than it had originally sought over alleged violations of accounting rules. Fannie's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, in 2006 sought to require the three former executives to pay back more than $115 million of bonuses and pay fines that it said at the time could total more than $100 million.

US: Drug Makers Near Old Goal: A Legal Shield
by GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON, The New York TimesApril 6th, 2008The Bush administration has argued strongly in favor of the doctrine, which holds that the F.D.A. is the only agency with enough expertise to regulate drug makers and that its decisions should not be second-guessed by courts. The Supreme Court is to rule on a case next term that could make pre-emption a legal standard for drug cases. The court already ruled in February that many suits against the makers of medical devices like pacemakers are pre-empted.

US: Reynolds Ads Oppose Move to Regulate Tobacco
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York TimesApril 1st, 2008As legislation moves through Congress that would empower the F.D.A. to regulate the tobacco industry, Reynolds, whose brands include Camel cigarettes, is attacking what it views as the bill’s vulnerability: a weak, overextended F.D.A.

US: Study says diesel emissions raise cancer riskby Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer, The San Francisco ChronicleMarch 20th, 2008The analysis by the California Air Resources Board, released Wednesday night, shows that the greatest health dangers related to toxic air emissions stems from diesel trucks traversing the freeways and other roadways around West Oakland and the Port of Oakland.

US: F.C.C. Weighing Limits on Slowing Web Trafficby STEPHEN LABATON, The New York TimesFebruary 26th, 2008The head of the Federal Communications Commission and other senior officials said on Monday that they were considering taking steps to discourage cable and telephone companies from delaying the downloads and uploads of heavy Internet users.

GLOBAL: 2 Reports At Odds On Biotech Cropsby Rick Weiss, The Washington PostFebruary 14th, 2008Dueling reports released yesterday -- one by a consortium largely funded by the biotech industry and the other by a pair of environmental and consumer groups -- came to those diametrically different conclusions.

CHINA: China Plant Played Role In Drug Tied to 4 Deaths
by ANNA WILDE MATHEWS and THOMAS M. BURTON, The Wall Street JournalFebruary 14th, 2008A Chinese facility that hasn't been inspected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made the active ingredient in much of the widely used Baxter International Inc. blood-thinner that is under investigation after reports of hundreds of allergic reactions and four deaths among the drug's users, the agency said yesterday.

US: UnitedHealth Faces Suit Over Payment System
by VANESSA FUHRMANS and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street JournalFebruary 13th, 2008The New York attorney general said his office plans to sue UnitedHealth Group Inc. as part of a broader investigation into the way the health insurance industry sets payment rates for hospitals and doctors outside of their networks.

US: Comcast Defends Role As Internet Traffic Copby Cecilia Kang, The Washington PostFebruary 13th, 2008Comcast said yesterday that it purposely slows down some traffic on its network, including some music and movie downloads, an admission that sparked more controversy in the debate over how much control network operators should have over the Internet.

US: Corporate Fraud Lawsuits Restricted
by Robert Barnes and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post January 16th, 2008The Supreme Court yesterday strictly limited the ability of investors who lost money through corporate fraud to sue other businesses that may have helped facilitate the crime, a decision that could doom stockholder efforts to recover billions of dollars lost in Enron and other high-profile cases.

US: Cloned Livestock Poisedby Jane Zhang, John W. Miller and Lauren Etter, Wall Street Journal January 4th, 2008After more than six years of wrestling with the question of whether meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that they are. The food industry appears to be divided over the issue.

JAMAICA: Regulators Mull Viability of Ferti-irrigationby Patricia Williams, IPS NewsDecember 26th, 2007Appleton Estates seemed to have solved the centuries old problem of what to do with distillery waste when they started a new project eight years ago. However, they are yet to convince regulators and locals that it is a viable option.

IRAQ: Sexual Violence: An Occupational Hazard -- In Iraq and at Homeby Marie Tessier, Women's Media CenterDecember 26th, 2007Jamie Leigh Jones was just 20 in 2005 when she took a leap of faith to work in Iraq for her employer, military contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root, then a subsidiary of Halliburton. She went on a mission she believed in. Shortly after her arrival in Iraq, however, Jones' ambitions were dashed in an alleged gang rape by co-workers.

EUROPE: Europe Proposes Binding Limits on Auto Emissionsby James Kanter, New York TimesDecember 20th, 2007European Union officials told leading automakers to make deep cuts in tailpipe emissions of the cars they produce or face fines that could reach billions of euros. Companies including Volkswagen and Renault immediately promised a fight to weaken the proposed legislation.

IVORY COAST: The Bitter Taste of Cocoa in Côte d'Ivoireby Michael Deibert, IPS NewsDecember 3rd, 2007In addition to funding conflict, cocoa revenues are believed to have been defrauded for enrichment of persons in both the government and rebel camps. Article also mentions the following corporations: Lev-Ci and Cargill.

US: Law firm seeks nearly $700 mil for Enron pactsby Martha Graybow, Reuters November 21st, 2007The law firm that helped win $7.2 billion in settlements for Enron investors is seeking nearly $700 million in legal fees for itself and other attorneys who handled the case, according to court documents.

EUROPE: Microsoft Ruling May Bode Ill for Other Companiesby Kevin J. O'Brien and Steve Lohr, New York TimesSeptember 18th, 2007Europe’s second-highest court delivered a stinging rebuke to Microsoft Monday, but the impact of the decision upholding an earlier antitrust ruling may extend well beyond the world’s largest software maker to other high-technology companies.

US: In Turnaround, Industries Seek Regulationsby Eric Lipton and Gardiner Harris, New York TimesSeptember 16th, 2007After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations.

US: Whistle-blowers remain in the line of fireby Jeremy Grant, Financial TimesSeptember 12th, 2007When the Securities and Exchange Commission came under congressional fire this year for its handling of an insider trading probe into hedge fund Pequot Capital, Senator Charles Grassley said the episode showed that whistle-blowers were "as welcome as a skunk at a picnic".

US: SEC Asks Firms to Detail Top Executives' Payby Kara Scannell and Joann S. Lubli, The Wall Street JournalAugust 31st, 2007Stepping up its campaign to shed light on the mysteries of executive pay, the Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters to nearly 300 companies across America critiquing disclosures in this year's proxy statements and demanding more information.

US: FTC: Milk Ads Not Misleadingby Sam Hananel, Guardian (UK)August 28th, 2007Federal regulators have turned down a request from Monsanto Co. to take action against dairy companies that advertise milk as free of synthetic hormones.

EU: EU lobbyists face tougher regulationby Andrew Bounds and Marine Formentini, Financial TimesAugust 16th, 2007Europe seems set for US-style controls on lobbying after the biggest public affairs companies in Brussels ruled out voluntary regulation because they would have to divulge their clients and fees.

INDIA: Novartis Patents Case Far From Deadby Praful Bidwai, Inter Press Service News AgencyAugust 9th, 2007Cancer patients in India have reason to be relieved at a high court ruling this week which dismissed a petition by Swiss pharmaceuticals multinational corporation (MNC) Novartis challenging an Indian law which denies patents for minor or trivial improvements to known drugs.

WORLD: We must count the true cost of cheap Chinaby Richard McGregor, Financial TimesAugust 2nd, 2007In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked.

US: Mattel Recalls One Million Toysby Louise Story , New York TimesAugust 2nd, 2007Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

US: Savings and Issues in Candidates’ Use of Private Jetsby Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne, The New York TimesJuly 26th, 2007Political fortunes and high costs have forced some presidential candidates to switch from using chartered private jets to those of corporations, including John McCain, who had previously sponsored a bill limiting use of corporate jets by candidates.

US: Tax Break Used by Drug Makers Failed to Add Jobsby Alex Berenson, The New York TimesJuly 24th, 2007Two years ago, when companies received a big tax break to bring home their offshore profits, the president and Congress justified it as a one-time tax amnesty that would create American jobs.
Drug makers were the biggest beneficiaries of the amnesty program, repatriating about $100 billion in foreign profits and paying only minimal taxes. But the companies did not create many jobs in return. Instead, since 2005 the American drug industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers in thi

CHINA: Lead Toxins Take a Global Round Tripby Gordon Fairclough, The Wall Street JournalJuly 12th, 2007High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China.

US: Justices Back Underwriters On New Issuesby Linda Greenhouse, The New York TimesJune 19th, 2007The securities industry dodged a bullet on Monday when the Supreme Court threw out a private antitrust suit that accused 10 leading investment banks of conspiring to fix prices for the initial public offerings of hundreds of technology companies during the 1990s.

US: Politics Forcing Detroit to Back New Fuel Rulesby Micheline Maynard, The New York TimesJune 19th, 2007This week, with a vote possible in the Senate on an energy plan, car companies retreated from their longstanding argument that any legislation to increase fuel economy standards would rob them of profits, force them to lay off workers and deprive consumers of the vehicles they wanted to buy. They are now lobbying for a modest increase in mileage standards, a position already adopted by Toyota, in the hopes of silencing calls for even tougher targets.

US: Hurdles Loom in Deal for Reuters by AARON O. PATRICK, Wall Street JournalMay 9th, 2007Thomson Corp. and Reuters Group PLC's ambitious plan to create the world's largest supplier of financial data and news could face regulatory hurdles as it would narrow the market to two main competitors from three.

SOUTH AFRICA: MCC stalls new Aids drugsby Belinda Beresford, Mail & Guardian OnlineFebruary 3rd, 2007South Africans have been denied the “biggest advance” in antiretroviral therapy over the last few years because of a lack of urgency in the drug registration process in South Africa, according to the Treatment Action Campaign.

WORLD: Controlling the Corporate Mercenariesby Nick Dearden, War on Want, ZmagNovember 7th, 2006While Iraq represents bloodshed and death on a massive scale to most people, to Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) it has brought a boom time, boosting the revenues of British-based PMSCs alone from ÂŁ320 million in 2003 to more than ÂŁ1.8 billion in 2004. In the same year income for the industry worldwide reached $100 billion.

EU: Chemicals: A tale of fear and lobbyingby Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald TribuneOctober 27th, 2006Three years ago, Margot Wallstrom, who was then the European Union's environment commissioner, revealed to a startled Brussels press corps that a blood test had found the presence of 28 artificial chemicals in her body, including DDT, a pesticide banned from European farms since 1983, when it was found to harm wildlife and attack the nervous system.

EU: Lobbying, European styleby Matthew Saltmarsh, International Herald TribuneOctober 27th, 2006If the European Union's eight-year effort to tighten laws governing chemicals testing has spawned one of the biggest and most costly industry lobbying campaigns that Brussels has ever seen, it has also given new impetus to efforts to regulate how lobbying is done at the European Commission.

IRAQ: Pentagon Audit Clears Propaganda Effortby Mark Mazzetti, New York TimesOctober 20th, 2006An American military propaganda campaign that planted favorable news articles in the Iraqi news media did not violate laws or Pentagon regulations, but it was not properly supervised by military officials in Baghdad, an audit by the Pentagon Inspector General has concluded.

US: Industry starts to back rules on greenhouse gas by Zachary Coile, San Francisco Chronicle August 24th, 2006For years, most industry groups have fought any effort to limit carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming, warning of dire consequences for the U.S. economy. But with growing public anxiety about climate change, major corporations are increasingly preparing for -- and, in some cases, lobbying for -- Congress to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases.

PERU: Fresh Evidence of Construction Problems in Camisea Pipelineby Ángel Páez, Inter Press Service (IPS)August 24th, 2006Techint, the Argentine company that built the Camisea pipeline which carries natural gas from Peru's Amazon jungle region to a port on the country's Pacific coast, used unqualified welders, in a clear violation of international norms, according to a new report by E-Tech, a California-based non-profit engineering and environmental consultancy firm.

CANADA: Information Cleansing, Canadian Styleby Bill Berkowitz, Inter Press ServiceAugust 16th, 2006If you're a teacher, student, journalist or just a plain concerned citizen interested in finding well-researched documentation about climate change, you can no longer depend on the Canadian government to supply that information.

US: SEC Lawyer Dismissed for a Donor?by Ari Berman, The NationJune 28th, 2006Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating one of the nation's largest hedge funds, Pequot Capitol Management, for possible insider trading. Up until last summer, the inquiry was headed by SEC lawyer Gary Aguirre. His investigation proceeded smoothly, Aguirre claims, until he asked for testimony from former Pequot chairman and Morgan Stanley CEO, John Mack, a top Bush donor.

EU: Brussels to raise fines for cartels tenfoldby David Gow, The Guardian (UK)June 28th, 2006Companies found guilty of anti-competitive practices will face multibillion euro fines or more than 10 times the current tariffs for abusing their monopoly and taking part in cartels under draconian new competition guidelines adopted by the European Commission today.

US: Justices Reject Campaign Limits in Vermont Caseby Linda Greenhouse, The New York TimesJune 27th, 2006Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and on campaign spending by candidates are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a splintered 6-to-3 decision suggesting that efforts to limit the role of money in politics might face considerable resistance in the Roberts court.

US: Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Refinery Emission Standardsby Janet Wilson, The Los Angeles TimesJune 21st, 2006A coalition of national and community environmental groups has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to overturn a new rule that allegedly allows refineries and other industrial plants to emit higher levels of noxious chemicals when starting up, shutting down and experiencing equipment malfunctions, without informing area residents.

CHINA: Google must obey China lawby Verne Kopytoff, San Francisco Chronicle June 9th, 2006China's government reiterated on Thursday that foreign Internet companies such as Google Inc. must abide by its laws, which require censoring online material that is considered to be politically sensitive.

US: For Law Firm, Serial Plaintiff Had Golden Touchby Julie Creswell and Jonathan D. Glater, The New York TimesJune 5th, 2006Mr. Vogel now says, according to a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, that he and members of his family were actually linchpins in a long-running arrangement that helped Milberg Weiss snare the lucrative lead counsel position in the Oxford Health and many other securities lawsuits, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees.

US: Enron Prosecutor Questions Skilling's Storyby Vikas Bajaj and Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesApril 17th, 2006A prosecutor tried to poke holes in the testimony of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, today by boring in on stock sales he made in the months after he left the company and before the energy company declared bankruptcy.

US: The Enron Standardby Lee Drutman, tompaine.comApril 13th, 2006In a Houston courtroom this week, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling took the witness stand to plead his innocence, telling jurors that â€śMy life is on the line.â€ť

US: Skilling's Lawyer Portrays an Accuser as Out of Touch
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesFebruary 16th, 2006A lawyer for Jeffrey K. Skilling, a former Enron chief executive, tried Wednesday to portray the head of the company's broadband unit as an out-of-touch manager who was criticized for his free-spending ways and did not even know how many employees were working under him.

US: 10 Enron Players: Where They Landed After the Fallby staff, The New York TimesJanuary 29th, 2006KENNETH L. LAY and his second in command, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were the public faces of Enron, painting a rosy picture of strong profits and healthy businesses. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees.

US: Big Test Looms for Prosecutors at Enron Trialby Kurt Eichenwald, The New York TimesJanuary 26th, 2006"For the government, if they lose the Enron case, it will be seen as a symbolic failure of their rather significant campaign against white-collar crime," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It will be seen as some evidence that some cases are too complicated to be brought into the criminal justice process."

US: Taking Enron to Taskby Carrie Johnson, Washington PostJanuary 18th, 2006Sean M. Berkowitz and a small group of government lawyers will be in the spotlight in the Jan. 30 trial of Enron's former leaders. The case is the capstone in the cleanup after an era of business misconduct that left investors billions of dollars poorer. The outcome could shape the public's -- and history's -- judgment of how effective it was.

US: Prosecutors Shift Focus on Enronby Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York TimesJanuary 11th, 2006Government lawyers who will try the case against Enron's former chief executives, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, have signaled that they intend to spend less time befuddling jurors with talk of Enron's accounting.

US: Call It the Deal of a Lifetimeby Landon Thomas, Jr., The New York TimesJanuary 8th, 2006It has been a wrenching professional and personal reversal for Michael Kopper, who three years ago became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges and cut a deal with the government. Mr. Kopper was also the first high-ranking Enron employee to publicly admit to lying and stealing - in his case, more than $16 million - from the company.

US: U.S. says Skilling mislead the SECCNNJanuary 4th, 2006Prosecutors intend to argue that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling attempted to deceive the Securities and Exchange Commission in a deposition he gave soon after the company's bankruptcy about his reason for selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock, according to a motion filed in a Houston federal court Tuesday.

US: Former Top Enron Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraudby Simon Romero and Vikas Bajas, The New York TimesDecember 28th, 2005The former chief accounting officer of Enron pleaded guilty today to a single felony charge of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, giving a significant lift to the government's case against the two leading figures in the scandal over Enron's collapse.

US: Bicoastal Blues For G.M. and Fordby Danny Hakim, The New York TimesApril 23rd, 2005Setting aside its home base in the Upper Midwest, Detroit has a blue state problem -- and it is about to get worse. Washington and Oregon plan to become the 9th and 10th states to adopt California's tough car emissions rules, forming an increasingly potent market for more fuel-efficient vehicles on the West Coast and in the Northeast.

BRAZIL: Corporate Governance Takes Center Stage in Rioby Sundeep Tucker, Financial TimesJuly 6th, 2004International corporate governance will come of age this week as the world's leading activists congregate in Rio de Janeiro for the 10th annual conference of the International Corporate Governance Network, which heads to a developing country for the first time.

US: A Record Year for Shareholder Activismby G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Christian Science MonitorJune 28th, 2004Question: What single force can get Tyco International to strive for cleaner emissions, inspire PepsiCo to study the impact of AIDS in developing nations, and even get Merck & Co. to declare its intentions to not manufacture an abortion pill? Answer: shareholders.

US: Probe into Iraq trafficking claimsby Elise Labott, CNNMay 5th, 2004The United States is investigating reports Indian nationals were victims of human trafficking to Iraq and mistreated while working there as contractors in U.S. military camps, the State Department has said.

US: For Cruise Ships, A History of Pollutionby Edwin McDowell, The New York TimesJune 16th, 2002On April 19 the Carnival Corporation pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Miami to criminal charges related to falsifying records of the oil-contaminated bilge water that six of its ships dumped into the sea from 1996 through 2001.

Mexico: Legislation Strikes Blow Against Privatization, Secrecyby Dan Jaffee, CommonDreams.orgApril 28th, 2002In less than 24 hours this past Wednesday, big advances for three major pieces of legislation indicated that Mexico -- for 20 years the ''model student'' of so-called free market policy reforms, and long noted for high levels of government secrecy and corruption -- may be charting a new, more independent course. At a moment when the Bush administration is chilling domestic dissent, restricting the free flow of information and promoting corporate deregulation, Mexico appears poised to do virtually the opposite.

ZAMBIA: Environmentalists Caution New Mine InvestorsThe Times of Zambia (Lusaka)March 6th, 2000A non-governmental organisation has cautioned the new mine investors not to willfully pollute the environment despite a bill which indemnifies them from litigation against environmental degradation. Citizens for a better environment, a Kitwe based NGO, warned that should the new mines violate the rights of the people to a clean environment, they would face the wrath of the public.